HoverAir X1 Pro and Promax: folding, self-flying 4K and 8K drones with modular controllers

The HoverAir X1 wasn’t your traditional drone. People who have little interest in piloting, like my colleague Thomas Ricker, use the highly crash-resistant self-flying $350 camera to easily get aerial video just by pressing two buttons. But it’s not particularly high-quality video, it’s not particularly fast, and you can’t fly it far away even if you wanted to.

That’s where the new HoverAir X1 Pro and X1 Promax come in.

Zero Zero Robotics has just put both drones up for sale on Indiegogo. We briefly checked them out in person, and they sound like an improvement on the X1 in practically every way.

While they are slightly bigger and heavier, they’d still fit in a cargo pants pocket, and they weigh under 200 grams — meaning you shouldn’t need to register them with aviation authorities since they’re under the typical 250-gram limit.

In exchange for that size bump, they now shoot 4K60 or 8K30 footage, respectively; have a wider field of view; last 4.5 minutes longer on a charge (16 minutes total); track you nearly twice as fast (26mph); can resist higher levels of wind (10.7 m/s); support microSD storage so you can finally hold more than 32GB of footage; and offer a two-axis gimbal for increased video stability, up from just one axis previously.

In addition to 8K30 footage, the Promax model can also shoot 4K at 120 frames per second for a slow motion effect, and 4K HDR footage in 10-bit HLG at up to 60fps. Both drones also shoot 24fps video across all resolutions if you’re looking for a more cinematic look. The original X1 only offered 30fps and 60fps.

While they still don’t have GPS, they do have a new visual positioning system that lets them fly over water, snow, and cliffs — the original would get confused and slowly land, which was bad!

And, for those who actually want to frame shots or pilot a drone themselves, Zero Zero is introducing a multi-part modular controller system called the Beacon with its own built-in 1.78-inch OLED display.

By itself, the $129 Beacon should hopefully already be a much more capable way of connecting to the X1 Pro or Promax than your phone. It offers one kilometer of video transmission range (which still pales in comparison to DJI’s up to 20km drones), acts as a tracker to help the drone follow you, and has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a microphone for recording audio and some voice commands.

But add one of Zero Zero’s little $69 modular joystick controllers, and now you can manually aim the drone one-handed and extend the Beacon’s battery life from an hour to an hour and a half. Add two joysticks, and you get a full gamepad-style drone controller, plus a shelf for your smartphone as an extra monitor underneath.

The company’s also devised a $169 “Power Case” that gives you 2.5 drone charges (40 minutes of flight time, it claims) just by sliding the folded drone in, and my colleague Owen Grove spotted a $69 set of ND filters during his hands-on, as well as a $79 charging hub for multiple batteries.

DJI has set the bar very high for prosumer drones like these, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Zero Zero hasn’t caught up in terms of image quality, reliable connectivity, or collision avoidance quite yet. (These drones now have a time-of-flight proximity sensor and / or a camera in the rear, but it only protects that side of the drone from crashes.) DJI’s $759 Mini 4 Pro has omnidirectional avoidance, nearly triple the battery life, and vastly longer range.

But HoverAir’s advantages are that its drones are cheaper, easier, more durable, and far faster to use, and those don’t seem to be changing today. Owen launched one from his hand with no instructions whatsoever, just by hitting two buttons. These new drones will retail for $499 and $699, respectively, with discounts for Indiegogo early adopters, while the original X1 appears to be sticking around for $350.

DJI seems nearly ready to announce its own budget easy-to-launch drone around the $350 mark, too: it’s called the DJI Neo.

Zero Zero says it should start shipping its new drones in October — and unlike most Indiegogo projects, this one will come with a guarantee. Zero Zero says it’s Indiegogo’s first partner for a new Shipping Guarantee program that guarantees you a full refund if the product doesn’t ship within the promised timeframe — because Indiegogo will withhold funds so it can process those refunds if they don’t ship.

“By providing a guarantee that backers will receive their products or their money back, we are enhancing the overall crowdfunding experience and encouraging more people to support innovative projects,” writes Indiegogo CEO Becky Center in Zero Zero’s press release.

Here’s Zero Zero’s spec comparison between the HoverAir X1, X1 Pro, and X1 Promax: